After a fairly long course of gremlin battling (since October of last year!) I finally completed a full automated imaging project. Note this is “automated” but not “remote”, meaning I still have to go up there to turn everything on but once that’s done I can go back to the base house to do everything else. That’s the first step. Once we can do that fairly reliably, the next step is total remote operation off site. A lot to do before that!
Still trying to figure out guiding issues with CCD autopilot but we did get this done. It was a relatively short project, just over 7 hours and only 1 channel, Hydrogen alpha ,but a very interesting area that I had not visited before! SH2 249 is an emission nebula visible in the constellation Gemini. Currently March through May/June is really galaxy season and our equipment is not particularly suitable for that…yet! So this was a good initial target. Stewart Sharpless (Hence the designation ‘SH’) back in 1959 published a catalog of HII regions. What is an HII region? Here is the explanation (from Wikipedia):”An H II region or HII region is a region of interstellar atomic hydrogen that is ionized.[1] (H is the chemical symbol for hydrogen, and “II” is the Roman numeral for 2. It is customary in astronomy to use the Roman numeral I for neutral atoms, II for singly-ionised—H II is H+ in other sciences—III for doubly-ionised, e.g. O III is O++, etc.[2] H II, or H+, consists of free protons.) It is typically a cloud of partially ionized gas in which star formation has recently taken place, with a size ranging from one to hundreds of light years, and density from a few to about a million particles per cubic cm. The short-lived blue stars created in these regions emit copious amounts of ultraviolet light that ionize the surrounding gas. H II regions—sometimes several hundred light-years across—are often associated with giant molecular clouds.” Probably the most famous of these is the Orion nebula, but there are many many others! This is one I discovered, never imaged before, designated SH2 249. The object to the upper right has been called by astronomers the “Jellyfish nebula” for obvious reasons. Equipment used is shown here. Right now we have a Tak 130 NFB refractor, SBIG STXL 6303 camera with self guiding filter wheel. 29 exposures with a hydrogen alpha filter, each 15 minutes long.
First operating platform from the new observatory. Takahashi TOA 130 NFB, Moonlite “Nitecrawler” focuser-rotator, SBIG STXL 6303E camera, Paramount MEII mount
HII region in the constellation Gemini (see text above). Taken with 5nm H-alpha filter. March 2017. Orion’s Belt Remote Observatory. See the images link in the right panel for full resolution version!
Thanks for reading!
Clear skies
Dr Dave